These are the 100 most useful Swahili words from our 1000-word beginner course - the vocabulary you will hear and use most often. Learn them first and you will understand a surprising amount of everyday Swahili.
| # | Word | Swahili |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the apple | tuffaha |
| 2 | the book | kitabu |
| 3 | the cat | paka |
| 4 | the dog | mbwa |
| 5 | the car | gari |
| 6 | the house | nyumba |
| 7 | the chair | kiti |
| 8 | the table | meza |
| 9 | the window | dirisha |
| 10 | the door | mlango |
| 11 | the pencil | penseli |
| 12 | the paper | karatasi |
| 13 | the school | shule |
| 14 | the teacher | mwalimu |
| 15 | the student | mwanafunzi |
| 16 | the boy | mvulana |
| 17 | the girl | msichana |
| 18 | the adult | mtu mzima |
| 19 | the friend | rafiki |
| 20 | the tree | mti |
| 21 | the flower | ua |
| 22 | the river | mto |
| 23 | the mountain | mlima |
| 24 | the beach | pwani |
| 25 | the sun | jua |
| 26 | the moon | mwezi |
| 27 | the star | nyota |
| 28 | the cloud | wingu |
| 29 | the rain | mvua |
| 30 | the snow | theluji |
| 31 | the wind | upepo |
| 32 | the fire | moto |
| 33 | the water | maji |
| 34 | the food | chakula |
| 35 | the drink | kinywaji |
| 36 | the cup | kikombe |
| 37 | the bottle | chupa |
| 38 | the plate | sahani |
| 39 | the spoon | kijiko |
| 40 | the fork | uma |
| 41 | the knife | kisu |
| 42 | the breakfast | kiamsha kinywa |
| 43 | the lunch | chakula cha mchana |
| 44 | the dinner | chakula cha jioni |
| 45 | the fruit | tunda |
| 46 | the vegetable | mboga |
| 47 | the bread | mkate |
| 48 | the butter | siagi |
| 49 | the cheese | jibini |
| 50 | the milk | maziwa |
| 51 | the coffee | kahawa |
| 52 | the tea | chai |
| 53 | the juice | juisi |
| 54 | the soda | soda |
| 55 | the chocolate | chokoleti |
| 56 | the candy | pipi |
| 57 | the cookie | biskuti |
| 58 | the cake | keki |
| 59 | the rice | wali |
| 60 | the pasta | pasta |
| 61 | the fish | samaki |
| 62 | the chicken | kuku |
| 63 | the beef | nyama ya ng'ombe |
| 64 | the egg | yai |
| 65 | the soup | supu |
| 66 | the salad | saladi |
| 67 | the sandwich | sandwichi |
| 68 | the pizza | piza |
| 69 | the ice cream | aiskrimu |
| 70 | the cereal | nafaka |
| 71 | the honey | asali |
| 72 | the sugar | sukari |
| 73 | the salt | chumvi |
| 74 | the pepper | pilipili |
| 75 | the tomato | nyanya |
| 76 | the potato | kiazi |
| 77 | the onion | kitunguu |
| 78 | the carrot | karoti |
| 79 | the lettuce | saladi |
| 80 | the cucumber | tango |
| 81 | the banana | ndizi |
| 82 | the orange | chungwa |
| 83 | the grapefruit | danzi |
| 84 | the strawberry | strobeli |
| 85 | the grape | zabibu |
| 86 | the lemon | limao |
| 87 | the lime | ndimu |
| 88 | the cherry | cheri |
| 89 | the watermelon | tikiti maji |
| 90 | the pineapple | nanasi |
| 91 | the mango | embe |
| 92 | the kiwi | kiwi |
| 93 | the peach | pichi |
| 94 | the pear | pea |
| 95 | the plum | plamu |
| 96 | the berry | beri |
| 97 | the melon | tikiti |
| 98 | the phone | simu |
| 99 | the computer | kompyuta |
| 100 | the television | runinga |
The 100 most frequent words cover about half of everyday spoken language. With the full 1000-word core vocabulary you understand around 85% of typical conversations in Swahili - enough to follow along and make yourself understood.
They are the most frequently used words of the language, selected by word frequency. Every one of them will appear again and again in real sentences, so each learned word immediately pays off.
Listen and repeat: every word in the 1000 Words course comes with native-speaker audio and an example sentence. Combined with spaced repetition in the free vocabulary trainer, most learners master the first 100 words within one to two weeks.